The Middle of the Night
by purplerayz
Summary: Grace is struggling after the events of her school dance. Tag to 7x08.


Steve wasn't expecting any company. Honestly, he almost hadn't even heard the soft knock on his door. He glanced at his watch, frowning. It was nearly midnight, way too late for any unexpected visitors. He had the television on, and the volume had been low, but maybe that's where the sound had come from. Maybe he had dozed off on the couch. Maybe he was hearing things. He reached for the remote, switching off the television, and listened again anyway.

He heard the soft knock again, telling him it hadn't been the television. His mind started racing, though, as he got up from the couch. He retrieved his gun from where he'd left it earlier. _Intruders don_ _'t knock,_ he told himself. He shook his head. Then why not use the doorbell? Or knock louder? Or use a phone and give him a head's up they were coming in the middle of the night.

When he reached the front door, he slowly peeled back the curtain from the window next to it. His heart sank low with worry, and a million more questions buzzed through his mind as he quickly unlocked and whipped the door open.

"Grace?"

Grace had her arms wrapped around herself, and as she looked up at him, he could see tears welling in her eyes. She stood there silently, glancing nervously between him and the ground, until finally, the tears started to spill down her cheeks.

Coming to his senses, and pushing past the shock, Steve reached out for her and quickly led her inside. "Grace, what's wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt? You alone?"

"I'm okay," was all Grace said.

He looked outside since she hadn't really answered all of his questions, but he didn't see a car or another person in sight.

"Did you come here by yourself?" he asked again as he closed the door behind him. "How did you get here?"

Grace didn't answer, only shifted her gaze back to the floor. She still stood with her arms wrapped protectively around herself.

"Did something happen?" He asked, but received no response. "To Danny? Your mom? Charlie? Stan? What—"

"Please stop," Grace finally pleaded as he fired the questions at her.

"You show up alone at my house in the middle of the night, Grace, and expect me not to ask any questions?" he scolded, quite a bit harsher than he had meant to.

Grace let out a sob and turned away from him. She reached out a hand, as if she was looking for something to hold on to. Steve was next to her in an instant.

"Hey, hey," Steve spoke in a much gentler tone, turning her, and pulling her into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry."

Grace clenched his shirt with her fists, and Steve felt her beginning to sink as she continued to sob, and her legs gave out under her. He sank to the ground with her, ending up sitting in an awkward position on the floor. Grace still clung to him, and he honestly wondered if she even realized they were on the floor.

Steve felt a tear slide down his own cheek as he continued to hold Grace. He had no idea why Grace was hurting so much. He had so many questions, and while Grace was crying the way she was, he wasn't likely to get any real answers. So, he just held her.

It was several minutes before Grace seemed to finally calm down a bit. Steve looked around, trying to recall where he had left his cell phone.

"Grace?" he asked gently. "Who are you staying with tonight, your mom or dad? I need to call them and tell them where you are."

"No, please," Grace pleaded, clutching at his shirt a bit tighter. "Not… not yet… Mom's asleep. She doesn't even know I'm gone."

"Okay," he finally agreed after a moment, struggling to keep his own emotions at check at her desperate plea. "Not yet."

Knowing he would be sore in the morning if he didn't switch positions, Steve began to shift his legs. Without detaching Grace from him, he managed to shift himself so he was able to lean his back against the wall next to them. Grace still cried silently, sniffling now and then, but at least she was no longer sobbing.

"I took a cab."

"What?" Steve asked. Several more silent minutes had passed, and the fact that Grace had spoken almost hadn't registered.

"I took a cab… to get here," Grace whispered.

"Grace…" Steve began.

"I know," Grace interrupted before he could continue. "I know. It was stupid and dangerous."

Dangerous didn't even begin to cover it, Steve thought. A teenage girl, alone in a cab, in the middle of the night… He didn't even want to think about what could have possibly happened. He let it go for now, but knew they'd have to come back to that later.

"Then why did you do it? Why'd you come here Grace?"

Grace was silent for a moment. "I couldn't sleep," she finally answered.

Steve took a deep breath. "Nightmares?" he asked. He knew Grace wouldn't be acting this way if it was a simple case of insomnia.

Grace didn't answer, but nodded her head against his chest.

"How long?" Steve asked.

"About a week."

A week. A week ago had been a tough day. Grace had been held hostage with a bunch of other kids at her school dance. Danny had been there too.

"Nobody got hurt, Grace," Steve reminded her. "Everyone was okay." He still knew it had to have been traumatizing for her, despite the good outcome.

"I know…" Grace reached up and wiped her eyes. "When I was there, I told my friend everything would be okay, because my dad was there."

"Did she believe it?" Steven asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you?"

The seconds slowly ticked by while he waited for an answer.

"Yeah," Grace finally said. "But I was still scared."

"You wanna know something, Grace? I was scared, too."

Grace lifted her head off his chest to look up at him, as if to see whether he was just saying that to make her feel better or if it was the truth. Apparently satisfied, she laid her head back down.

"Have you talked to anyone about this?" Steve asked, but he already knew the answer.

"I don't know if my mom would really understand," Grace answered slowly. "And Stan… he's gone a lot now…"

"What about Charlie?" Steve joked, earning a soft chuckle from Grace.

"He _really_ wouldn't understand."

"Okay. But I know your Danno would."

Grace fell silent, and Steve realized she had begun to cry again.

"You don't think he'd understand?"

Grace shook her head. "No… he would… but I can't…"

As Grace trailed off and continued to cry, it finally dawned on Steve why she had come to him. The only reason why she would come to him about this instead of her dad.

"Grace…" Steven asked gently. "Are your nightmares about your dad?"

The strangled sob that came from Grace was all the answer he needed.

They sat in silence again for awhile. Honestly, Steve didn't know what he could say to make her feel better. So he just held her again, and let her cry until all he heard was an occasional sniffle from Grace. She started to shift against him, all the while keeping her tight hold.

"Your Uncle Steve is old."

Grace laughed and looked up at him. "What?"

"If we stay on this floor any longer, I might not be able to get up," he explained. While he was a bit uncomfortable, he would stay on the floor with Grace as long as she needed. But he could tell she was beginning to feel uncomfortable as well, just not having the courage to extract herself from him. "Come on."

He helped Grace stand and led her toward his living room. Grace never completely let go of him, so he gently detached himself from her. He sat her down on the couch and told her he'd be right back. She instantly pulled her legs up onto the couch in front her and wrapped her arms around them. Before leaving the room, he grabbed a blanket and threw it around her shoulders.

He returned a moment later with a glass of water in hand. "Here, drink," Steve ordered. "Your dad will kill me if I let you get dehydrated from crying."

Grace smiled for a moment at the joke, but she quickly faltered. "He's gonna be mad."

"No he won't."

Grace looked up at Steve, clearly not believing him.

Steve sat down on the couch next to her with a heavy sigh. "Okay, he will be at first, but he'll understand. Drink," he reminded Grace.

Grace obediently took a few sips of water before setting the glass down on the coffee table in front of them. Steve put his arm around Grace as she sat back and leaned against him.

"I understand if you didn't want to talk to Danno, but why didn't you call me, Grace? You know I would have come over."

"Mom took my phone. I'm sort of grounded," she explained sheepishly.

"How can you be sort of grounded?" Steve asked with a chuckle.

"Okay," Grace agreed. "Maybe not _sort of_. I'm grounded." She paused, and Steve patiently waited for her to explain. "Since I haven't been sleeping well, I've been kind of irritable. I guess I snapped and yelled at my mom yesterday."

"Ah. Okay. That answers that question, then." On to the next one, Steve thought. "You know I have a doorbell, right?" he smirked.

Grace looked up at him before resting her head back on his chest. "I didn't know if you were still awake. I didn't want to disturb you."

"Grace…" All the kidding left Steve's voice, and he could feel Grace tense up against him. "You came here in the middle of the night by yourself in a cab, who by the way, left a young girl on a doorstep without even bothering to make sure she got in okay. What would you have done if I hadn't answered? If I hadn't been home?"

Grace had started crying again, but Steve continued.

"Your cab was gone. You have no phone on you to call for help. Tell me, Grace, what would you have done?"

Grace didn't answer.

Steve shifted. "Grace, look at me."

Grace obediently lifted her head and looked up at him, tears still falling.

When he had her attention, he spoke softer. "I know you're scared and hurting right now, but I need you to see how dangerous it was for you to come here tonight, the way you did."

Grace nodded, looking away. "I know… I'm sorry. It was a bad one, and I was scared, and I didn't know what to do…"

Steve pulled her back into an embrace, and once again let her cry. He ignored the rapidly growing wet stain on his shirt.

* * *

He woke with a start, knowing he had forgotten to do something very important. He looked down as he registered the warmth at his side. Grace was still curled up next to him, sleeping. He rubbed his free hand through his hair and sighed. Grace had cried herself to sleep, and he must have dozed off as well. The light coming through the windows told him it was already morning.

The ringing finally registered in his mind as what had woken him. He carefully extracted himself from Grace, laid her down on the couch and re-covered her with the blanket. He looked around, trying to recall where he'd left his phone… Then, it finally dawned on him, what that very important thing was that he had forgotten to do.

He all but ran through the house in search of his ringing phone. As soon as he spotted it, he snatched it up and answered it.

"Danny—"

"Grace is missing! Rachel called—"

"Danny—"

"She was just gone this morning—"

"Danny, slow down—"

"Rachel thinks she ran away because she grounded her. She doesn't have her phone—"

"She's here!" Steve finally barked into the phone, capturing Danny's attention. "She's fine," he added. He could clearly hear Danny's sigh of relief.

"What's she doing there? Why didn't you call me?"

"Calm down, Danny. I'll explain when you get here. Call Rachel and let her know Grace is alright."

"Fine," Danny huffed out.

He could tell Danny had much more to say, many more questions, but calling Rachel was important too, so she would no longer worry about Grace.

As he hung up the phone, Steve headed back towards the living room. As much as he wanted to let Grace continue in what appeared to be a peaceful sleep, he knew he had to wake her. He sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch and gently shook her shoulder.

"Grace."

Grace's tired eyes slowly fluttered open, confusion filling them as she looked around. When her eyes found Steve, he could see the recognition in them and the memory of where she was and what she was doing there. Slowly, she sat up, keeping hold of the blanket around her.

"Danno's on his way over."

Grace eye's bulged, and if it weren't for the reason Grace was here, he'd almost want to chuckle at the look on her face.

"Relax," Steve encouraged. "I'll talk to him first. Why don't you go freshen up in the bathroom?"

Grace nodded, and he sadly watched her edge her way off the couch and trudge slowly to the bathroom. Steve sat for a few more moments before finally getting up himself.

He waited for Danny outside the front of his house. He was leaning against the door when Danny's car appeared, in record time, and pulled quickly in the driveway. Danny was out of the car so fast that Steve briefly wondered if he'd even had time to put the thing in park.

"Where is she?" Danny wasted no time, ready to burst past Steve, making him realize he'd been right in thinking he'd need to run some interception.

"Hold on, Danny," Steve held his arms out, as if trying to talk down a suspect on a case. "She's inside. She's fine."

"She's fine?" Danny repeated, clearly frustrated. "What the hell's going on, Steve? What's she doing here? You kidnap her?"

Steve knew Danny wasn't exactly joking, even knowing he'd never do such a thing. "She showed up around midnight. She came by herself." At this point, though, he wished he could tell Danny that he had kidnapped Grace. It would have been easier.

Danny stressfully ran his fingers through his hair. "What's the matter with her? She knows better. And why the hell didn't you call me the second she got here?" Danny's anger shifted to Steve. He made an attempt to push past Steve, but he stopped him.

"Just hold on a second, Danny." He waited to continue until he was sure Danny wouldn't try to barge past him again. "I'm sorry I didn't call. That one's on me, okay? You can yell at me later. Grace knows what she did was wrong, and I'm not saying you should just let that go, but right right now, she's struggling. She's hurting, and she's scared. She doesn't need you to yell at her. She needs you to be calm. She needs you to talk to her."

His words only put Danny more on edge.

"Are you gonna tell me what the hell is going on or not?" Danny asked. "What in the world possessed her to do such a stupid thing?" He made another attempt to move past Steve.

"She's having nightmares," Steve finally explained.

Danny stopped in his tracks. "What?" he asked, clearly searching his mind. "Is it because of what happened at the dance last week? Why didn't she come to me? She knows she can talk to me about this stuff. Why'd she come to you?"

He could see the hurt in Danny's eyes. The wonder of why she apparently trusted Steve more than her own father.

"They're about you."

Danny was silent as the anger towards Steve faded from his eyes. "What? What do you mean, they're about me?"

"I don't know," Steve answered honestly. "That's all I could get out of her."

They stood together in silence for a moment before Danny asked, "Where is she?"

"Think you can hold it together?" Steve asked, seeing that for the moment, Danny had calmed down.

"No, but I'll try."

Steve accepted the honest answer and finally let Danny past him, and they ventured in the house. He'd expected Grace to be back curled up on the couch by now, but found it to be empty. He wasn't too worried, however, and after a quick search of the house, they found her sitting outside on the steps of the back porch.

Danny stopped short of the glass doors that led out to the porch. Steve saw a pang of fear and guilt in his eyes. Worry.

"Go," Steve encouraged. "Talk to her."

* * *

Danny slid the glass door closed behind him, purposely making extra noise so Grace would know he was there. He didn't want to startle her. She had her back to him, and her legs were bent up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly around them. She didn't move as he sat down next to her.

"I'm not going to yell at you."

Grace finally turned her head, giving him a skeptical look.

"Okay," Danny said. "I probably will. But not today."

Grace turned her gaze back towards the ground, but didn't say anything.

"Let's make a deal," Danny finally offered. "I promise not to yell at you. I just want you to talk to me, Grace. You scared your mother and I half to death this morning." Getting no response, he continued. "He didn't say it, but I'm pretty sure you scared your Uncle Steve, too, showing up here the way you did. I know you know better than that, so tell me what's bothering you so much that you threw all caution to the wind."

Grace still didn't respond, but leaned against his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. He could feel his shirt starting to become damp where Grace's tears fell onto him. It took all he had to stay calm and not try to force his daughter into telling him what was wrong this very instant.

"Steve says you've been having nightmares," Danny finally spoke after a few minutes. As much as he didn't want to push Grace before she was ready to talk, he needed to get her started. And he needed answers.

Grace nodded against him, much like she had done with Steve last night.

"I know you probably don't want to talk about it, Grace, but it will help, I promise. I'm guessing they're about what happened at the dance last week. Am I right?" Danny prompted.

Grace nodded again.

"Alright. What happens? How do the dreams start?"

Grace took her time responding. "It's a lot like it was that night… Everyone on the floor… At first the dreams were just you not being there… to protect me… but then you were there…"

Danny held Grace tighter as he could tell she was struggling to hold it together enough to talk.

"You were there," Grace continued. "And… and you _had_ to protect me… and… and you… I didn't come to you, because I thought if I'd see you, I'd see you the way I did in my dream, and… and… and I can't lose you, Danno," she finally sobbed.

Danny tried hard to swallow the lump in his throat. Though, Grace hadn't outright said it, she had said enough for him to realize her nightmares were about him, likely getting hurt or dying to protect her. He'd do it in an instant, too. He'd do anything to protect her from harm, and Grace knew that. That's what was scaring her.

"Grace," he began, swallowing again as his voice cracked. "I'm right here. I'm fine. We're all fine," he reminded her. "I promise you, you won't lose me."

"You… you can't promise me that."

Danny stiffened. Her words were too grown up. Where was the little girl who still believed the world was full of wonderful things? She was right, though. He could promise it all he wanted, but he had a dangerous job, and safe pasture was not guaranteed.

"I'll quit my job."

The words were out of his mouth before he even realized what he was saying. He would, though. If that's what it took to help his daughter be at peace, he'd march back into the house right now and tell Steve he quit.

"No!" Grace shot up almost as fast as he had said it. She looked up at him, tears still glistening in her eyes. "You can't… You can't quit. I'm proud of what you do. You protect people. Keep them safe… Keep me safe."

Danny's voice caught in his throat again.

"You can't quit because of me. I just…" Grace trailed off and buried her head back against his chest.

"Okay," Danny said rubbing her back. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Okay. You're right, Grace. As much as it pains me to say it, I can't promise that I'll always make it home in one piece… I'm going to promise you something else, though, alright?" He waited, making sure Grace was listening before he continued. "I promise you, no matter what happens, I will do my best to come back to you. I will fight, I will beg and plead with every god there is, I will do everything in my power to come home to you. Okay? That's a promise I can keep."

Grace shifted and wrapped her arms around him. They stayed like that for several minutes before Grace finally spoke.

"Thank you, Danno. I'm sorry for coming here alone."

Danny didn't say anything. If he did, he would probably start to yell at her for the stupid stunt she had pulled last night, and he wanted to keep his promise. He wasn't going to get mad at her. Not today.

"Come on," Danny finally encouraged, placing another kiss on top of Grace's head. "Something smells good. Let's go see what Uncle Steve's whipping up in the kitchen. I bet you're hungry."

He helped Grace stand and kept his arm around her shoulder as he led her back into the house. They followed the smell towards the kitchen where Steve was busy cooking breakfast.

"Hey, just in time," Steve looked up as he saw them enter.

Breakfast was quiet. Danny and Steve both watched Grace pick at her food, but neither of them said anything about it. They were just happy she was eating anything at all. A short while later, however, Grace gave up and set her fork down. She stared down at her remaining food for several long moments.

"You okay, Monkey?" Danny asked, worried.

"I don't feel so good," Grace admitted.

"What's wrong?" Danny asked as he stood up and went to her.

"Headache," Grace answered, "and kind of nauseous."

"You're exhausted, sweetie." Danny rubbed a hand on her back as he looked at the untouched glass of juice in front of Grace. "And probably a little dehydrated."

Grace shared a glance with Steve. Danny was curious, but ignored it.

"Come on," Danny urged Grace out of the chair and led her to the living room. He sat her down on the couch and sat across from her. Steve was right behind them with a full glass of water. Danny gratefully accepted it and handed it to Grace.

"Drink this, then you can rest for a bit."

Grace nodded and slowly sipped at the water. When she had drank enough to satisfy him, Danny let her lie down and covered her with the blanket. He rubbed circles on her back until he was sure she had dozed off.

Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked over his shoulder at Steve, who was still standing behind him. "I need to call Rachel," he said quietly.

Steve nodded, and as Danny disappeared outside to make the call, he went back towards the kitchen to clean up breakfast.

Danny joined him several minutes later, clearly more frazzled after his talk with Rachel.

"Did you get Grace to talk?" Steve asked.

"Not in detail," Danny answered. "But I got the gist of it."

Steve waited for Danny to explain.

"She's… she's scared of losing me," was all Danny said.

Steve nodded in understanding, but wasn't sure what to say. There was several more moments of silence.

"You're going to have to talk to Rachel about looking out for signs…" Steve finally said. "Grace said she snapped at her, and Rachel grounded her."

"I know. I should have talked to Rachel more after what happened at the dance, but I thought Grace was okay. I thought she'd bounce right back like she usually does. I thought she'd come to me if she was struggling. She's always come to me, Steve. She's had nightmares before, and she's always come to me…"

"She's changed, Danny. She's older now, she's going to react differently to things like this."

"I know," Danny agreed. "She's not a little girl anymore. And I understand why she came to you, but it still kills me that she was too scared to come to me… I just… Thank you. For taking care of her."

"She's family," Steve replied. "This isn't going to go away over night. But she's talking about it now. That's a good start."

Danny nodded, and they fell into silence again. Steve finished cleaning up while Danny went and sat in the living room, watching his daughter sleep.

* * *

Grace finally stirred two hours later. Danny got up from the chair he'd been sitting in for that same amount of time.

"Feeling better, Monkey?" he asked. Grace nodded as she sat up, and he sat down next to her, placing an arm around her and giving her a kiss. "Do you think you're ready to go home, yet? You're mom is really anxious to see you."

Grace nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you mind if I talk to Grace alone for a minute, before you head out?"

Steve had appeared in the doorway and looked at Danny as his question hung in the air.

"Sure," Danny agreed after a moment. He got up and left the room.

Steve came and sat in front of Grace and gave her a smile.

"I know it's hard to talk about this stuff," Steve began, "and I think you should keep talking to your dad about it. But if you ever really feel like you can't talk to him, you can still come to me, okay?"

Grace nodded.

"Just promise me next time you'll call me first. Even if it means you have to steal your phone back from your mom. You call me, and I'll come to you. Can you promise me that?"

"I promise," Grace agreed and moved forward to hug Steve. "I'm sorry I scared you, Uncle Steve."

"Who said you scared me?" Steve asked as he hugged her back.

"Danno."

Steve chuckled. "Okay," he admitted. "You did scare me last night, Grace. But you can make it up to me by keeping your promise, alright?"

Grace nodded and finally relinquished their embrace. "Okay."

They headed outside, where Danny was waiting for them. "Everything alright?" he asked, looking between the two.

Steve nodded.

"Okay, go wait in the car, Monkey. I'll be right there."

Grace gave Steve another hug before retreating towards the car. Once she was in and the door was close, Danny turned towards Steve.

"Anything I should know about?"

"No," Steve answered. When Danny gave him a skeptical look, he added, "I promise."

"Okay." Danny looked around, unsure of what to say.

"She'll be fine, Danny," Steve offered. "It'll take some time."

"I know… I'm still mad at you for not calling me, but I'll forgive you for taking care of my daughter… I just… Thank you, again, Steven." He didn't know what else to say, so instead he gave Steve a grateful hug.

"Anytime, Danny, you know that."

"Even in the middle of the night?" Danny pulled away with a smirk.

"Even in the middle of the night," Steve agreed.


End file.
